


Eyes Open

by gothelder



Category: Fallout (Video Games)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Fallout 4 - Freeform, Gen, M/M, Multi, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-22
Updated: 2020-11-27
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:35:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27674132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gothelder/pseuds/gothelder
Summary: Vault 111 froze people, wait, was that a spoiler? At this point, I hope not. Vaults are many and Vault Tecs test are even more. How to get people into the future? Well there were a few theories there.How to keep the commonwealth alive? Also a few theories.
Relationships: Deacon/Female Sole Survivor, Female Sole Survivor and OC, Paladin Danse/Female Sole Survivor, many
Kudos: 2





	1. Rin 1

Rin had just found serenity on her back patio when the phone rang, breaking through the bird song and making her drop the book that she had been reading. The sound of the river so near to her home had been lulling her into a sense of calmness, but no more.

With more than a bit of swearing, she hauled herself up and headed inside for the phone, one painful limp at a time. The leg wound was why she was at home and not looking pretty on the arm of a Chinese delegate. Someone else would be doing that for now and she had no illusions that they were not as good as she was. War was getting nearer and nearer every day. They needed there best on point, not seconds. But she still wanted to be the one on the mission. She still wanted to be doing what she could for her country. Not, limping around at home.

She grabbed the phone. “Hello, this is Rin.”

“Rin.” 

“Spencer! Good to hear fr-”

“Baby, start walking to the vault. Do it calmly, but start now.”

She felt her stomach drop and get replaced by a cold void. This was all the fears they ever had, coming unexpectedly soon to fruition.

“Now baby, you understand?”

“Yes Spence, I understand.”

“I’ll meet you inside. I love you, go.”

“I love you too,” She said, but the phone was already dead. She went to the door, took the cane the doctors had suggested she use as she needed and headed out. 

The birds were no longer singing and there was a stillness in the air that she swore was not there a few minutes ago. Bridge to her right, the small foot path that led to the vault was not even two houses down. They had been planning on paving the path. She didn't think they were going to get the chance. She stepped carefully as she headed down to the small bridge that was part of the path and crossed it. 

The sound of large vehicles came from behind her. A tank parked in front of her nearest neighbors house. Overhead, she heard aircraft approaching. The path was short, but the aircraft were faster than her. By the time she reached the top of the path, uniformed men were just stepping up to their stations at the gate that led up to the vault.

“Ma’am are you on the list?” One of them said to her as she approached. She could hear her neighbors making their frantic way up the path behind her. 

“I should be, Rin Lee Farrow.”

“I've got her,” The other officer said. “Adult female, you're supposed to be with an adult male?”

“Spencer is going to meet up with me inside.”

The guards nodded to each other and ushered her through the gate right as a pile of other people arrived.

Additional guards were taking their places. There were even a couple in power armor. The size of the guns they carried would be able to clear the gate with barely any effort. Rin swallowed and tried to walk faster. The platform she needed to reach was just up the hill. Someone from behind her came up fast and clipped her on their way by. She fell to one knee, but was able to haul herself back up. She reached the platform just as it shuttered and began its first descent. She risked the step that a few weeks ago would have been deftly done. Now, when her right foot landed on the platform, she wobbled as the left couldn't help balance properly.

“There, there Miss Farrow. I got you.” It was one of her neighbors, old Mr.Smighe. His white beard and belly had always gotten him the neighborhood roll of santa clause. He was a solid man, even in his later years, which was good since he had caught her and steadied them both as the platform went down.

“Thank you Mr. Smighe, this is crazy isn't it? It's just a test right?” She asked, but she knew better. Though even when she was off work it was better to leave people thinking that she knew less than she did.

“I hope so, kid, but i've got a bad feeling about this one.” He said with a grimace that was just not meant to sit on his face.

They were herded off the platform and it immediately headed back up for the next group. Stairs sucked, but she made her way up them with Mr. Smighe’s ever present help. One of the machines made what sounded like background noise from a microphone. Then suddenly a bagged vault suit was thrust at her and she was led away from Mr.Smighe and down a hallway filled with great big metal contraptions with seats in them. They looked a lot like escape pods.

Like everyone else, she stripped off her old clothing and zipped herself into the suit. Everyone did their best to keep their eyes to themselves, except the scientists. They watched and occasionally jotted down notes. 

“Where is Spencer? Is he here yet?” She asked, the doctor as he herded into her pod.

“I am sure he will show up soon. Now just sit in here. We will get you cleaned up and ready for your new home down in the vault.”

She had worked her whole life in shocking situations that needed spur of the moment responses. The entire world ending seemed to go above and beyond that training. Rin set her cane to the side and climbed carefully into the pod.

The seat inside was oddly comfortable. It felt a seat meant for a long ride, not just for a quick cleaning. Apparently no expense had been spared for this. Hard work for the government meant high pay. It always had, but there was a niggling thought at the back of her head. Something was just off. She had always watched for it from other countries, but never from her own. 

It was when the pod closed up around her that the slowly placed connection was made. Pipes near the pods had silver tape around them. She only noticed it now that she was literally staring at it from across the path. There was frost on the pipes. 

Her mouth opened in one final scream, but it was too fast a process.

The next 202 years her mouth would be trapped in that scream.

“Noooo.”


	2. Chapter 2: Meet Spencer

Chapter Two

Spencer hung the phone up with every intent of shattering the receiver. Anger and stress were a bad mix. The best he got was a long crack up the handle.

It was the second call he had made in the last 5 minutes. The first canceled the helicopter that he had been supposed to be on, but since the bombs were coming he couldn't get to the White House like he was supposed to be anyway. The second had been just barely not a lie. He wasn't sure either way if it would work, but he didn't want her worrying with all the other issues going on. He wanted her safe, as safe as she could be in this world. He would find her as soon as he could. But he had heard some things about vault 111 that him think it could be a few years before he found her again. 

He rolled his yes. A few years. That was almost funny since he knew exactly how long it could be. He had to … jump ahead to find her. It was going to be dangerous to find her again, but damn he would. He would be nowhere near Sanctuary Hills by the time the bombs hit, but if this worked it wouldn't matter.

“Spence, are you ready?” Anthony Maccready asked, Anthony Jonathan Maccready to be exact. The man had connections, upon connections and he was one of Spencer’s best connections, and friends. This connection of his though, was either a genius or completely crazy. They were down to a hope and a prayer though, so this was what they were doing. The list of their other options were as short as Maccready was.

“Yeah, Tony, lets try this.” He stood and they clasped hands for a moment. They had known each other for years. They would make this leap together.

This day had started out good, he had been planning on being home this evening. The things he had hoped to be doing tonight… gone. It had gone from paradise to a shit show.

They made their way downstairs. Down many, many stairs. First floor passed them, basement, sub basement, second sub basement. The walls went from wood, to cement to stone as they went further down. The summer breeze went from warm to downright chilly as they went deeper into the earth. Light was reduced to old bulbs that flickered. He began to hope this would work, just so he didn't have to hike back up these stairs.

“We are going to die.” Spencer said, shaking his head, but laughing. The bombs would fall, literally any minute now, if what they were about to do didn't kill them, the bombs would.

Tony laughed and took the last few steps in a flying leap. “All or nothing!” He proclaimed loudly, only to be hushed by someone actually working in the lab. There were more than a few really.

“If you're coming, get over here now.” The lab coated scientist said as he flipped large switches up like Dr. Frankenstein once had. All along the metal portal electricity leaped and sparked. Then the chemical was added in a fine mist. The electricity seemed to calm down. The center of the ring closed in a blue static that had waves. It was an ocean of tiny stars that flickered crazily.

The scientist took one look back and ran through the metal portal. his body didn't come out on the other side, and the snap of electricity was nearly deafening. Two other scientists ran through, neither of them came back in parts either..

“This is it Tony.” Spencer said, clapping his hands together and getting ready to make the mad run through the portal himself. In theory, his girl was just on the other side of that portal. 

“I’ll meet you on the other side!” Tony said before dashing off in front. He too went through the ring and seemed to vanish. He was swallowed by that lovely blue portal or waves, not even a splash.

The smell of ozone was in the air. The ground shook. Spencer ran. The bombs were already hitting. If he wasn't through before the power went out he was dead anyway. His feet moved a fast staccato, there was only 15 feet of space between him and the portal. Three steps at a dead run and he was nearly nose to zapping pulses. One last step….

His feet pounded pavement and he slowed to a stop. He had expected to show up underground, beneath the crazy scientists home, in the mad man’s basement. Instead he seemed to be in some part of Boston that was less than at its best. There was an entire road blocked off by wreckage and another blocked by a haphazardly thrown together wall. The wall had a sign hanging on it in luring neon lights, ‘Goodneighbor.’ With an arrow pointing to a door There was a door in the wall of blockage so Spencer made his way there. 

Macready was nowhere in sight, nor were the scientists. Could he have been the only one to make it through? And through to wear? He had spent a lot of his life in Boston, and this section was not part of it, at least not the way it was now. 

The door in the wall opened, which kind of surprised him. He stepped inside and instantly knew something was wrong.

“Welcome to Goodneighbor.” A man said as he pushed his way out of the door. He had no skin to speak of, no nose. His eyes were milky white, though they never really turned to Spencer. 

“Thank you.” Spencer managed to get out before the man was gone. He had barely processed what had looked like a walking corpse that could still speak when he was confronted by what was beyond the door. 

An assaultron seemed to be staring at him from behind a merchant's counter. He had dealt with enough of them that his first instinct was to head right back out the door. The robot was not powering up to singe his flesh from bones, so he paused, contrary to his desires of running. 

Instead, he stepped inside.


	3. Rin 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has been modified. I dont know what was wrong with me when I wrote it, but I went through and did more editing. It should read much easier. Also missed a plot point so added that back in. Its not a huge rewrite, but it has been changed. As of 12-4-2020

Rin’s eyes opened. She watched as the individual frost particles went from lovely snowflake patterns, to rivulets on the window of her tube. It must have taken hours. It felt like days, but whatever they might have put in her veins to allow the freezing to take place, kept her nearly sedate. By the time the ice was gone from the window, she was able to pull a hand up to touch her slightly numb face. Her body began shaking with the cold as it became able to move. The deep freeze had kept her solid, the defrost had chilled her to the bone.

When the door opened of its own volition, she wasn't ready for it. She fell out, landing on the floor with a less than graceful bounce. Ice shattered and skittered across the floor, finding new homes under the other tubes. It had fallout out of her hair and broken off of her skin, now it would melt in the shadows. Rin felt lucky that it was the ice and not her fingers and toes shattering. She must have been more defrosted than she felt. It felt like her bones were still frozen, and she couldn't shake the cold, though her body did seem to be trying. 

She remembered hearing things, but she had no sense of time while she had been frozen. Something loud, like a gunshot. Then awful pounding, and muffled screaming from a hundred throats. And then later, much more recently, she was pretty sure she had heard sobbing. It made no sense to have heard something while being frozen, but coma patients could hear things. Maybe the memories were real and she wasn't insane. She hoped not. The freezing could have hurt her brain. Only time would tell.

The cement floor wasn't any warmer so she pushed herself up. She waved her arms about in a sitting jumping jack form for a while. She was trying to warm her blood up so that the near feeling of having a seizure would leave. Once the shaking finally slowed down, she tried to stand up.

Standing almost didn't work, both legs were asleep, but after much shaking of her legs, they came back to life. First it was painful tingles, but as she staggered down the hallway of tubes, she got more and more steady on her legs. Someone had left her cane by her pod, so she grabbed it to help her stand. She walked back and forth on the hall between the pods for a while, just to get her legs feeling more normal. It actually felt like her weak leg had healed some while she was in there. So that was the silver lining here. 

The shakes had nearly stopped after the third hike back and forth so she began to investigate.

The pod across from her was supposed to have Spencer in it, but it was empty. The one next to it had a blue lipped Mr. Smighe. Her head dropped as a sob grabbed onto her chest. His eyes stared towards her, frozen in death, but still with kindness in them. Or maybe that was just confusion, since they were not to have been frozen. Just sterilized and sent on to the vault proper. Not sterilized to have no kids, just to be clean.

Her own pod was the only one standing open in the hallway. She stared at if for a moment, something was off. The shape and color of the pod was the same as the others, but the company logos were peeling off. She looked around, but none of the other pods seemed to have that problem. She went back to it and found that it was some kind of decal, and it was curving up at the edges. The other pods, it was a metal plate that had been fused with the pod.

With one fingernail, that was slightly longer than she remembered them to be, she picked at the decal. It pulled off easily, like it had been on and restuck before. The bumps of a brand name under it making even the original placement a poor one to stick to.

“Pulowski Preservation Shelters.”

What was a Pulowski model doing down here in a Vault Tec facility and why had she been put in that one? Was it chance, or was there a reason? She filed that tidbit away. It could be why she was still alive. She wasn't one to often believe in chance. It was a very unstable thing.

She walked the hallway again, stopping to look in each pod. She had a feeling that Spencer was not here, but she didn't want to risk leaving him here if he was. She was only here because of him after all. He had somehow known that the war was about to happen. The fucker had known and he was not here like he was supposed to be. Once she finally found him, she was going to kick his damn ass for not showing up.

Damn the tears that were hitting and damn the man not living through whatever it was that she had managed to live through. She dragged her arm across her face to dry her eyes. Then she stared angrily at the small set of stairs that she had just found. She was not by nature an emotional person, so she blamed the freeze. 

She walked up to the stairs and continued to stare at them like they were daring her to try to kill them. Daring her to smash them all to pieces in anger. Her cane was good, but it made her happier to have a railing to grab onto as she made her way up the short flight of stairs. Some day, she would show this sassy set of stairs what she could do. Right now she was quickly losing the oomph to even stay angry. Exhaustion was creeping in like she hadn't just been sorta sleeping for the last who knows how long.

Entering the main hallway of the vault, she found herself staring at the corpses of large roaches. She was glad to not have had to deal with those. Bugs that size were supposed to be found in dark and steamy places like jungles. Boston was not one of those places. In fact quarters tended to be about the size of Boston’s roaches. These gave footballs a run for their money.

Rin stumbled her way through the vault. Other side rooms had more cryo chambers. She checked each and every one, just in case Spencer was here. No luck, but she had to be sure. She also didn't want to leave any other living people here. Vault Tec had already fucked them over. So she was not going to fuck them over a second time.

She stopped when she found an open pod. It was the first sign she had found that someone might still be alive.

“Hello?” She called out, hoping not to be alone. 

Every tube she looked at was holding a frozen corpse. The tube across from the empty one had a window that appeared to be tinted red. She peered into the pod, it was blood splatter. Most appeared to have asphyxiated, they had the same blue lips that Mr. Smighe had. This one, had been shot. She could see the hole in his skull where he had been shot and that upper side of the pod was covered in brain spatter.

The empty pod must have been where the crying had come from.

She checked the names on the pods. The empty one was: Adult female Nora Mcain. The bloody one was supposed to be: Adult male Nate Mcain and Baby Shaun. She peered in, but saw no baby. Something ugly had happened here, very ugly. Nate was obviously dead. She was not close to the family, but she knew of them in her neighborhood. They were good enough people, patriotic and honest. A new baby that was now missing. That was rough enough to deal with. Nora was out there somewhere alone, bad on her for not checking for other survivors. She could have gone out with Rin in tow, but likely she was panicked and looking for Shaun. 

Rin had not yet had children, but she would be hunting someone down if they had taken hers. If she hadn't found them, Spencer sure would have. He was good at finding information that should have been long dead. So she could understood why Nora was already gone. Though the implications of the body still being there and refrozen were still confusing.

Rin left this area, it suddenly felt even colder than the one she had come from. This whole underground facility could be haunted by the ghosts of the betrayed, and right now she felt the cold like that was actually happening. Like the fingers of the dead were reaching for her. She damn near ran out of that particular hallway. It felt warmer in the next one. There were fewer angry ghosts here.

Rin got the decided impression that she was following Nora as she walked by other giant bug corpses. She found a baton and felt much better with that in her hand. She flexed it back and forth trying to work out the kinks that were still in her body from the long sleep. She had no notion of how long that sleep was, but it felt like she had slept for weeks. Certain sleep amounts felt like they had a certain feeling to them. The cat nap felt short. Overnight sleep felt long. Frozen sleep she wasn't sure she could trust.

When one of the bugs ended up not being dead, she smacked it firmly with the baton until it stopped moving. The sound of last squish was so much worse than it was from small bugs. 

There was a certain snap in the wrist that gave her the best strike. She had used batons before, often even. Batons, knives, baseball bats, poison, books, a fire poker, a golf club, whatever got the job done and made the least amount of noise. In her profession, attention was important, unless the attention was watching her. In her profession it was better if they never suspected that anyone was there in the first place. That meant that sometimes a needed weapon hadn't started out its existence as a weapon. She could make do.

This vault was oddly familiar, in shape and design. She had been in China, gathering intel for the US, about the vaults that they had been making over there. Apparently they had been working with Vault Tec too, because the prototype vault she had been on tour with had looked much like this one, but no cryo chambers. It had living quarters instead. Like this one was supposed to have had. Theirs had come from a company called, Future Lives. Now she knew that Future Lives was just another name for Vault Tec. 

She wandered until she came to the area she had originally come through upon entrance to this frozen hell. There was the skeleton of the lady that had handed out vault suits. The skeleton still held a packaged suit. How had she died so quickly? Had they even all been tucked into their pods when the woman had died?

Shaking her head, Rin helped herself to a cleanly packed vault suit that was still sitting on the table. Ignoring the skeletons, she quickly shimmied out of the wet one and into the dry one. She left the wet one lay where it fell. If there were skeletons still here, then this was a mostly undisturbed place. She instantly felt warmer by having something dry on. 

Something shiny caught her eye and she found herself studying the skeleton guard that had been near the lady when she had died. While the guard suit he still wore had little significance to her, the pip boy that still rode his arm did. It was closer to his elbow than it would have been in life. Why her mind noticed this, she was unsure. Maybe this had been unnoticed by Nora and she had found another one elsewhere. It was frightening to think that this was likely the only thing that would get her in or out of a vault. That made her more comfortable for having checked all the other pods for living people.

Giant bugs and incredibly clean skeletons matched with the amount of dust that this place had, told her that she had been asleep longer than a week or two. The size of the bugs told her that something was seriously wrong. It said that the bad had gone sideways in an incredibly spectacular way.

She rode the elevator upstairs and when she stepped out, she took one look around and said the only thing that came to mind at that point with thunder and unknown noises ratcheting into echoes across the sky. With the dry deadness that lay out all around her. With no signs of life around her.

“Holy shit.”


End file.
